Hon. Rosemary Moodie: We did have discussion in committee. At the time, the Indigenous leader who had the question addressed to him, President Natan Obed, did make a comment. I will quote it because I have it in front of me.

The question asked was, “Do you think such an amendment would have any impact for Indigenous peoples? If so, what would it be?”

Mr. Obed replied:

I was not aware of the amendment that you reference, but very often official language status for French and English is a sledgehammer that allows for those two languages to dominate in our communities. The very history of Inuit participation in Canada through health care delivery, education and government is the dispossession of Inuktitut in the face of federal, provincial and territorial legislation that empowers English and French even in our Inuktitut-dominated communities.